Is Barry Diller ready for foray into Web video?

NEW YORK--An often-overlooked fact is that the world has billionaire moguls Barry Diller and Rupert Murdoch to thank for Bart Simpson, Jack Bauer and Bill O'Reilly.

Diller and Murdoch, once friendly enough to collaborate on building Fox Broadcasting into the nation's fourth major television network, are scheduled to speak at the Media Summit conference here over the next two days.

Some observers expect Diller to soon branch off in yet another direction: online video. A former chairman of Parmount Pictures and once one of Hollywood's most influential executives, Diller has signaled his readiness to get back to his roots.

Almost 15 years after turning his back on the entertainment industry, the things that interests Diller most now are "programming ideas," he told British newspaper The Guardian in October.

Diller's conglomerate has begun snatching up media companies. IAC last year took a 25 percent stake in music discovery site iLike.com and acquired humor site CollegeHumor. The company is expected to soon team up with the to launch a satirical news site.